Rennes celebrates. This view through a window overlooking the City Square in Rennes, which was captured by U.S.

Rennes celebrates. This view through a window overlooking the City Square in Rennes, which was captured by U.S. troops August 4, 1944, shows the mass of residents gathered before the City Hall to celebrete their liberation. ......... scenes of jubelations marked the long awaited event. Rennes, 97 miles south of the starting line of the American offensive, is the ancient capital of Brittany and the strategic center for the conques of the whole penindula, overrun 24 hours later by U.S. armored units in a lightning advance to the Loire which cut off the whole of Brittany with is three great ports and U-boot bases of Brest, Lorient ans St. Nazaire. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said that in the nine days preseding the fall of Rennes, the American had liberated more than 1,000 square miles of territory and destroyed seven divisions.